Cervical plexus: Encyclopedia - Cervical plexus

Cervical plexus

The cervical plexus is a plexus of the ventral roots of the first four cervical spinal nerves which are located from C1 to C4 cervical segment near the neck. They are located laterally to the transverse processes between prevertebral muscles from the medial side and vertebral(m.scalenus,m.levator scapulae,m.splenius cervicis) from lateral side. Here there is anastomosis with n.accessorius, n.hypoglossus and sympathetic trunk.

It is located in the neck, deep to sternocleidomastoid. Nerves formed from the cervical plexus innervate the back of the head, as well as some neck muscles.

Has three types of branches: cutaneous, muscular, and mixed.

• Cutaneous (4 branches):
  • Greater occipital nerve - innervates lateral part of occipital region
  • Greater auricular nerve - innervates skin near concha auricle and external acoustic meatus
  • Transverse cervical nerve - innervates anterior region of neck
  • Supraclavicular nerve - innervates region of suprascapularis,shoulder and upper thoracic region
• Muscular
  • ansa cervicalis, etc.
• Mixed
  • Phrenic nerve

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Cervical plexus", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki